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To put the question into context, if I take a video of me playing Aveyond, plot included, and put it on the web, does that make it more likely or less likely that Aveyond will be successful?

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Does it affect me to watch a movie of a game I haven't played? Yes. It does. For example, I recently watched a playthrough of the last stages of Bionic Commando Rearmed. Saved me what might have been dozens of unproductive hours trying to see the end of the thing. Instead I was, through Youtube and Wikipedia, able to get the gist of the game's plot in around an hour and a half, and it didn't cost me a dime.

Not too long ago, I watched a playthrough of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. Did that actually kill my interest in playing the game? No, it didn't. Igarashi's Castlevania is just that good, that profound -- if not mystical -- an experience. At the moment, I'm playing through RPGOne's translation of Final Fantasy VI. I would rather be playing the PS1 version, except the Woosley translation is plainly inferior. Funnier, but inferior. I see now that the game was not actually written for kids... Woosley just made it seem like it was. On the other hand, the Woosley translation was more mysterious by virtue of its amateurity. (yes I know he had like 3 weeks to do the thing in... that's not the point). Kefka's dialogue and even his personality are notably different between the two versions.

I don't think the Youtube "revolution" is bad for the games industry. Instead, it just puts pressure on companies to make games that are fun to play, not just watch.

Now about the matter of Aveyond, I mentioned that because it strikes close to home. Puts the matter into immediate context, in terms of the costs and consequences. Presumably, Aveyond is a story told between a game: the purpose of the game is to live the story in an abstract, simulated sense. Generally people who buy a game for the game play want cutting-edge graphics as a part of the mix. That leaves, if the math is done, only the people who play the game for the story as the people who will play. (nostalgia isn't a factor because there are no memories directly associated with the experience of playing the game). These are people who actually want to watch an anime, but want a story that gets just a little more to the point than an anime does. In exchange for this, a little hacking'n'slashing is tolerable, especially if the player can project themselves into the experience of the game and identify with the hero as an aspect of their own person, making the hero a symbol of their greater identity. Then the hacking'n'slashing becomes a metaphor for the player's own search for truth.

But, no one ever said that you have to search for truth by yourself. After all, there is such a thing as working together to find the truth, and in the most expeditious manner available!

So that brings us back to the matter of whether I, or anyone else who plays RPGs for the story, would buy an RPG after watching the story for free. To which the answer is that it doesn't matter. I own all three Xenosagas and have only played through one of them -- I watched the cinemas on YouTube and read the scripts, and those are all I need to see. I bought the game not because I wanted to play it, but to show my appreciation. The emotionally astute, like myself, operate by different rules than either the financially minded or the entertainment-minded. We have a different code, a distinct ethical sense. It is a sense not of honor, mind you, but of honoring. When someone does good intellectual work, we honor that contribution by respecting the need of the contributor to achieve their goals. We spend our money so that the artist can make their living. For honoring, we expect honor in return: if the product is being sold for too much, we hold out until the price is lowered to a level that allows us to honor everyone in the market who is producing quality work. As someone who will most likely never be rich myself, I do not respect the right of intellectuals to achieve enormous or even considerable wealth; but I do respect their right to succeed relative to the median. Enormous wealth is always accompanied by enormous poverty. Nor does desire to create employment for others justify the accumulation of such wealth. If you want to employ people, start a non-profit or else run your profit corporation to be sustainable, not with the aim of being rich.